Shelby Davis always knew she wanted to work with babies, but it wasn’t until she had her own that she found her calling as a nurse in the Continuing Care Nursery (CCN) at the UAB Women & Infants Center.
“In nursing school, I thought I wanted to do labor and delivery, but I quickly learned that you don’t have as much interaction with the babies, and that’s where my true passion was,” Davis said. “I had no idea that the Continuing Care Nursery existed.”
The CCN is the step-down unit for the UAB Regional Newborn Intensive Care Unit (RNICU), and it provides family-centered care for babies as they grow and prepare to go home for the first time.
Complications
At 29 weeks into her first pregnancy, Davis was admitted to the hospital for high blood pressure. “They diagnosed me with severe preeclampsia, and then they transferred me to UAB,” she said. “I wasn’t even 30 weeks yet, but they said, ‘You might be having a baby today.’”
Just a week later – in March 2022 – Davis gave birth to her daughter via cesarean section, and she weighed just 2 pounds and 4 ounces. “I was terrified, but UAB took such amazing care of me and just made the whole experience as good as they could,” she said.
Her tiny but mighty daughter stayed in the RNICU for a few days before being moved to the CCN for continued observation.
“She was there six weeks, which to me is amazing because working there now I see babies celebrate their first birthdays there,” Davis said. “At the time, six weeks felt like an eternity, but now I see how blessed we were.”
Finding her calling
During her daughter’s time in the hospital, Davis learned about the kind of care the CCN provides, and she decided it was where she wanted to be.
“I just fell in love with all the nurses and the things I watched them do, like handling her as small as she was and how comfortable they made me feel,” Davis said. “So, I told them that when I’m ready to go back to work, I’m going to come back here.”
This wasn’t an empty promise. After her daughter turned six months old, Davis applied to the CCN and has been there ever since. “I truly believe that her journey led me to where I was supposed to be,” she said.
Davis brings her own experience to her role, connecting with parents both as a nurse and as a mom. “I love telling parents who are lost or scared that my little girl was this size or my little girl was here and now she’s thriving and healthy,” she said.
“The people here had such an impact on my life, and they took such good care of my little girl,” Davis added. “I never knew that I would feel comfortable leaving my two-pound newborn at the hospital while I went home to recover from a C-section, but they just made me feel so comfortable.”
A brighter future
When she’s not caring for newborns, Davis is at home raising her own daughter.
“She’s amazing, and she’s never had any issues,” Davis said. “She’s still tiny, and you can see that her peers in daycare are much bigger than her, but she’s so intelligent. I hope she grows up and wants to go into the medical field and take care of little ones.”
For other nurses interested in infant care, Davis shares this message: start early.
“Start pursuing it in your preceptorship in nursing school, because it’s a whole new world,” she said. “Focus on that and just making connections. See if you can job shadow, see if you like it. There are so many families you get to follow along with after they’ve left the RNICU, and I get to say, ‘Hey, I took care of this baby, and now he’s celebrating his first birthday.’ It’s rewarding knowing you had a hand in that.”
September is NICU Awareness Month. Click here to learn more about the Regional Newborn Intensive Care Unit and Continuing Care Nursery at the UAB Women & Infants Center.